The Elements
by kat.marie2
Summary: Solaris has lived within the coven for eighteen years now. A loveless, devoid coven of any interaction other than violence. When she is forced to marry Darius she rebels back. It is with the help of James a member of the Wolf People, their sworn enemy, that allows her to find love and to have a relationship without killing. Please Review!


The festivities had already begun. I could hear the beating drums outside our home and the soft yellow glow of the fire cast in through the windows. My face, arms, and back were all painted in green lines that traced and twisted along my body. My whole left side was completely exposed showing off the six wolf prints that trailed up from my hip to my shoulder. I braided pieces of my hair until I was finally satisfied.

I moved from the house outside. I walked down the street a little ways to the edge of the woods where everyone was. The bodies danced around the fire to the loud beats. Everyone was enjoying themselves. I found my father watching over patiently. I moved up next to him and stared out over at the dancing bodies.

"I have a surprise for you tonight," he whispered down to me.

My idea of surprises and my father's never seemed to match just right. I looked up at him. The casting glow of the fire only deepened his tan skin. His dark eyes and dark hair seemed to almost match in this light. He was older and I could see the flecks of gray starting throughout his hair, although no one would tell him that. He put his large hand on my shoulder.

All he had to do was raise his hand and the drums silenced. The crowd of people moved around my father in a circle before sitting down. I joined them leaving him alone in the middle. He took a deep breath and seemed to almost grow in the center of everyone as he took in the energy.

"I felt tonight would be an appropriate night to tell the story of our creation. Before we had become a powerful coven we were merely a town, a small village that lived in peace with nature. But soon the Wolf People over ran us. Their powers were stronger than we could imagine as they could transform by will into monsters that tore us apart. But we were given a weapon of our own. With their arrival came the arrival of the elements. Now our hunters hold these powers within. Hunters," he called.

Four of us rose and made our way to the center. There was Darius, painted red with flames along his wide arms and broad shoulders. His dark hair was cut short and he had piercing dark eyes that seemed to be flecked with specks of golden rage. His temper was like that of a fire, strong and fierce and he was a brute when he rampaged through the wilderness after the Wolf People.

Then there was Ty. He had white paint that puffed and swirled throughout his skinny body. He was small, slender, and with his red hair, green eyes, and pale skin he didn't seem very threatening, but the moment he stepped into the woods his frail, light body moved swiftly. So swiftly in fact it wasn't uncommon to lose him. He became a deadly killer with precise accuracy.

Then there was Divinia. She was beautiful with her golden hair cascading around her like the figure of a mermaid. Her big blue eyes lit up her face and blue paint that nearly matched turned into waves throughout her subtly curvy body.

Last was me. Green paint moved about in trees, leaves, ivy that swirled across my body. I stood next to my father with Divinia on my right. Darius stood next to my father. My father had trained Darius and was his mentor. He himself had once been a fire element, but that was during the generation before us. We were now beginning to train the generation beneath us, although they wouldn't be able to step up for years. They were just barely starting school.

"Tomorrow is the full moon," my father continued with his bellowing voice, "That means without will the Wolf People must change form. It is tomorrow that we send our hunters out." He turned and looked down at me with a smile, "And it is also tomorrow that my own daughter has reached her eighteenth year. With it comes an important promise in our coven. The promise of marriage."

My heart sank. There were many traditions I followed, but there were many I avoided. I was bound to the coven no matter what I had hoped. My blood seeped through their veins as did theirs in mine. I could not escape, nor leave had I wanted to, but at this moment I wanted more than anything to run. Our coven's tradition of the eighteenth year meant I would have been promised to someone. And I knew all too well who my father planned on promising me to.

"I will promise her tonight, this night of celebration to Darius," he turned his attention on Darius now, "She is my everything, and now she's yours." Darius nodded with respect and my father turned his attention back to the group, "Tonight we celebrate!"

The drums picked up again and everyone began to move, but it all seemed to spin around me swiftly. My feet wouldn't budge, my heart raced, and I couldn't seem to focus on anything. A black cloud swept over my eyes and I could feel myself slip back but I couldn't stop any of it.

"Solaris," a deep voice echoed, "Solaris."

My head pounded like the drums around me. The darkness seemed to fade and the bright light of the fire burned in my eyes. I looked up to see a square jaw, dark eyes, and a look I hadn't seen on that face before. It seemed to almost soften.

I pushed out of Darius's lap. I tried to get up on my own but his hands had found their way to my elbows and helped to push me up.

"Don't touch me. I'm fine." I stormed away from the fire not looking back.

"Solaris," a different voice called after me, "Stop."

I froze. The downfall of these powers was the control our coven had over us. My father stepped up behind me and I turned to face him. "You will accept Darius as your husband. That's final."

I nodded as I had no choice but to obey. "I need to go home. I have classes in the morning."

The walk back was dark and lonely and I had nothing to accept me when I arrived home except the thought that my life had finally one-eightied. I could still hear the distant drums, a reminder that none of this was a dream. I stepped into the bathroom slipping out of my sandals and pulling down my pants. I eased out of the little fabric that was our customary wardrobe for ceremonies and into the steamy shower.

The warm water ran green around my feet as I tried to relax and figure out what my next move. For years I had been obsessed with one thing, getting out of here. Hunting the Wolf People was not what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Finally as a senior I wanted to leave here. Get out and go to college, figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Not end up a healer and stuck here training new hunters for years until they could finally take my place.

I stepped out and wrapped the nearest towel around me. In my haste I hadn't grabbed anything to wear out. I knew my father would still be at the ceremony. I could hear the drums still beating. He would be the last to leave. My house was empty and I stepped out from the steaming bathroom to find myself wrong.

"Divinia," I cried putting my hand to my chest, "you scared me."

"Sorry. I thought you could use someone after that incident," she shrugged.

Divinia and I had never really been close. It wasn't customary for our coven to reveal feelings or grow close to one another. It's one of the reasons my mother left it so hastily. She felt lonely and had no one to turn to. I looked at Divinia unsure of what to do next. We were bred to be killers, our whole lives sacrificed to the hunt, but here she was sitting looking just as uncomfortable as I felt.

"Let's go up to my room. I need to change anyways," I suggested.

The second my back was to her I could feel the cold blade against my neck. Her small hands gripped the handle tightly as she pressed it to my unprotected skin.

"Darius is mine," her warm breath hissed into my ear, "you'll find a way to end this engagement. Fast."

What Divinia seemed to forget was that I was not one to take threats very well. I could feel my elbow hit the fleshy part of her stomach and I spun grabbing her wrist and twisting it feeling the bones break beneath the force I put on it. She collapsed to her knees and stared up at me.

"Divinia, if you ever threaten me again I'll do worse than break your wrist," I twisted it more and watched her writher in pain, "we're hunters. Our code is to protect our own not to argue over small matters that are beyond our control. I suggest you see the healer before tomorrow's hunt and get this fixed fast."

I let go and turned my back to her again and moved upstairs. My room, besides the woods that is, was the one place I felt truly at ease. The green and browns that painted my walls and furniture comforted me and slid out of my towel and into a pair of running shorts and a tee shirt. I moved back downstairs and saw that Divinia had left.

Outside the air was still crisp and cool. I made my way towards the beating drums, but moved off to the right away from them and into the woods through a different path. I let the earth soak into my feet and felt each hard twig, the rough dirt, and the texture of the fallen leaves. I began to move faster until I was running throughout the woods, moving through trees and bushes as if they didn't exist to me because in a way they didn't. They weren't some outside force to me. They were a part of me.

I could hear talking within the woods and slowed down. I didn't want them to notice me. The animals were silent and avoided a small patch. I knew something was lurking there. I found a thick tree and nestled in. I moved into it slowly letting its bark and trunk surround me until I was fully inside it. The strong structure protected me like a cocoon.

I couldn't see while inside the trunk, but I could hear them, muffled, but still audible.

"You're still young," a voice said. I could tell it was a male and he sounded close in age to me. "You don't understand how dangerous tomorrow night will be. We can't control our transformation like normal. Tomorrow when the full moon rises we will shift and stay that way until the moon has set and dawn has arrived."

"I know what happens," a younger boy's voice whined.

"I know you do, but what you don't realize is the Element's will be out hunting us, as we will hunt them. I don't want you near them. You hear me? If an attack happens, which would be rare, I want you to run away. Don't think you can beat them. There're only four of them, but their powers are strong. We beat them in numbers, but if you were to get one on one with an Element you wouldn't survive it."

I eased my way up the tree trunk and when I knew I was near the top pulled myself out onto a sturdy branch. I could see them just diagonal of me. There was the young boy, no older then my future element whom I was training. The other one was around my age. I sat on the ledge just watching as the older boy showed the younger one defensive moves in case he was to be attacked.

"You have to be careful of the earth element. She's one of the stronger ones. She can disappear in out of trees and into the ground and then reappear where she pleases as well as move the earth to help her. She's strong."

I smirked a little letting my ego boost as he complimented me unknowingly I was eyeing them as they spoke. The teaching going on below me reminded me of Matthew, my future element, and my own training sessions. I was working on teaching him to move the trees and plants around him. We were starting with small sprouts and working our way up, just as my mentor had taught me. I watched as they moved around each other. I knew instinctively I could kill both of them, and if anyone from the coven saw me they would be destroyed to hear I hadn't touched them.

I decided it was time to have a little fun. I moved a tree and watched as the smaller wolf hit into it. He stared at it a little confused and moved away from it. The two began their play fight again and I moved a branch a little and put a dip in the earth. The small wolf ended up hurting his paw. I couldn't help but snicker. This was far too easy for me.

"Shh," the older wolf looked around, "She's here."

I slid into the tree and down into the ground. I became the earth. I could feel the pressure of their feet on my soft soil and then I pushed myself up in front of them. The older one jumped into front of the smaller, weaker pup. I just stood watching the protecting stance he took. His eyes practically shone in the dark night. Their golden color glittered between topaz and dark brown. I stepped forward and I could hear his guttural growl.

"So you really think I'm the strongest?" he lunged but I ducked into the soil and back up. "Don't flatter me then try to belittle it, I've had a bad day," I said simply.

"Run Sam!" he shouted.

I turned to see the small pup run but I wrapped a vine around his ankle and pulled him down. I tightened it and kept him put. He wouldn't be able to move until I wanted him to.

"Please, he's only nine," the wolf begged, "Take me. Let him go."

"I thought you wolves didn't beg. Too proud," I moved towards him.

"Please," he pleaded.

His face seemed so soft and sad. He looked defeated. I pulled Sam up and hung him upside down. He screamed out and the older wolf reached out.

"Give me a reason why," I asked simply.

"He's my brother," he sputtered out, "I love him."

The shock made me drop his brother. He grunted but I could feel he was fine. He was willing to die for him out of love and because they were family. My father didn't even leave when my mother took off. No one here would die for one another.

"Is that what the alpha told you? That you have to die to protect the younger generations?" I asked crouching down so I was closer to him.

"What?" he looked confused, "No. No one told me. What do you even mean?"

"So you choose to give your life for him because you love him?"

"Yes, yes, please, just not Sam."

I stood back up. He looked at me oddly.


End file.
